Thursday Lunch 12:11 pm

Draco looked up as Harry entered Hermione's room and frowned. Harry proceeded to ignore him which Draco decided was for the better. Hermione's parents had arrived earlier and Draco had tried to sneak out when they proceeded to interrogate him. Why was he here? What was his relationship to Hermione? What was his relationship with Mr. Potter? It was lunch break and Draco had eaten very quickly in order to spend time with Hermione. Her parents had left after a bit to go talk to Dumbledore or someone. When Hermione was awake she was always shivery in a way and kind of closed up. He'd take her hand and talk to her softly and recently she'd gradually calmed down, eventually falling back asleep.

He stood up as Harry entered then sat back down. There was no noise except for Harry sitting down in the other chair and pulling it up next to Hermione's bed by Draco.

"Malfoy," he said softly, not wanting to disturb Hermione, "I've been thinking. You must have went through something down there, I mean I know Hermione did, and you were there too, so I just want to say, I'm sorry too. I can be a real idiot sometimes."

Draco raised his eyebrows in surprise, so the boy had some sense in him after all, and he did know he was an idiot, sometimes.

"Call me Draco," he replied, "Malfoy was my father's name, I'm not my father."

"Draco," Harry said.

"I don't want to be like my father," Draco told Harry, wondering briefly if he should keep calling him Potter or Harry and then decided that if he was going to be friends with him they should switch to a first name basis, "Harry, I had lots of time to think down there and my father was a real ass."

"Ah," Harry said. Draco said nothing in reply and they both sat silently until it was time for them to head off to their afternoon classes.

Draco stood up and pushed open the door with Harry following behind outside Ron was walking down the hallway towards Hermione's room.

"Hey Ron," Harry called then said when he got closer, "It's a little late for visiting Hermione, classes are just about to start."

It was then Draco noticed Ron had a odd look on his face, and he looked strangely pale. He walked right up to Harry then put his hands around Harry's throat.

"Ron!" Harry said, "What are doing?"

Ron said nothing and instead stared coldly as Harry coughed. Draco grabbed onto Ron to try to pull him off Harry. When that didn't work, and Harry was starting to turn blue, Draco tried to loosen Ron's grip to no success. Finally he kicked him as hard as he got. Ron made a coughing noise then let go and stepped back looking dazed.

Harry fell to the floor and coughed a few times then took several deep breaths. Draco kneeled down to see if Harry was alright then heard Ron mumble something that sounded like a spell and felt a cool breeze of air rush past him. He stood up and looked at Ron.

"What do you think you were doing?" Draco asked angrily, "And I thought you two were supposed to be friends, I know I've felt like doing that plenty of times myself but I never have!"

"What I was doing?" Ron asked looking at Draco angrily as he knelt down to help Harry up, "Come on Harry."

Harry stood up and looked at Draco coldly, "I thought you said you were sorry. Apparently you aren't."

"What?!" Draco asked now thoroughly confused.

"Don't play stupid, you nearly strangled me, then when Ron tried to help you kicked him!" Harry said fiercely then turned and walked down the hallway with Ron following. Ron glanced back once and Draco saw his eyes were all black. He shivered then mouthed something to Ron he'd never say out loud at Hogwarts. Ron turned back around and followed Harry down the hallway.

Confused and angry Draco walked down the hallway in the opposite direction, resisting the urge to punch something. Just great, he was trying to be helpful and they both turned on him. Which was very confusing considering Harry believed Draco had done the strangling. when, it was Ron. Well, that's the way Gryfindors were, unpredictable.

As he hurried to class his thoughts wandered once again to You-Know-Who. Was he dead, was he alive? If he was alive where was he? At least they were safe now, here at Hogwarts.

Thursday Afternoon 2:30 pm

In Herbology class he bumped into Crabbe and Goyle who made ape like gestures and grunts then looked at him.

"You're back in classes?" Goyle asked, except it was more like a statement than a question.

"Yeah, I am," Draco said, "I was in class all morning too."

Draco decided against telling them he'd also been in class since Monday, but decided against it. Some friends he had.

"Oh," Goyle said blankly. Draco suddenly wondered why he hung out with the two goons. They were stupid as hell and offered no company. They did like bullying people though, that had probably been why.

"Listen, I don't like you two," Draco said, "I don't really want to hang out with you. You can just be friends with each other. You don't need me."

They both stared stupidly and Draco sighed then turned around and walked off. At the other end of the green house he stopped and wonder briefly what he had just done. He had just dumped the only two 'friends' he'd ever had. Were they really friends though or side kicks? Had he ever had friends? Hermione was the first person he could ever remember wanting to spend time with, simply because he liked her.

Draco wondered what people would do when the news got out they were together. Unless they just didn't tell anyone. Thinking of Hermione Draco felt worry wash over him. People always got over Shock right? You couldn't die from it could you? She wouldn't die though, not after surviving all that down in the Dungeons.

As he shoved some meat down the Venus fly trap's mouth he suddenly felt the urge to just skip class and go see her. He truly couldn't miss any more classes though. There would be time in between classes to go see her though.

What if though, now that they were back at Hogwarts, she'd stop loving him? What if she'd start hating him again and get some gryfindor boyfriend? He bit his lip, but he doubted that would happen, she wasn't that type of person. She was a Gryfindor, Gryfindors didn't do that... they were the kind of person who were good just for the sake of being good. They didn't do it for themselves, only to help others. Slytherins, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs could be good and nice, but Draco didn't think he could ever quite get that whole good thing. One could be nice and caring and worry about the environment and donate to various places yet, it wasn't the same some how. No matter what happened though, Draco would always be there for her, no matter what he'd do anything for her, always follow her through everything. Lord and Lady, he loved her so much! She was the most amazing person he'd ever known with the amazing ability to think no matter what was going on. Smart and beautiful and loving and simply perfect. Every day he felt as though he was falling even more in love with her.

Draco suddenly felt a fierce pain stab into his pinky finger and looked down to see the Venus Fly trap biting his finger and he swore rather loudly. A few people looked at him and snickered and Draco looked down then carefully removed his finger from the thing's mouth then quickly replaced his finger with the food they were supposed to be feeding it.

A/N: Thanks for reviewing everyone! Maybe this story will live up to its uh.. what's the word.. prequel? Also, I won't mind if you tell you're friends how wonderful Dungeon and Soul! :-P

I'd like to dedicate this chapter to the following reviewers:

Ashley Nikole Malfoy

Earwen Colomanel

Cereza

dracohermioneluver

Marissa03

Also, I had comments about Sen. She does have a role.. I suppose I could have used a old character, but it wouldn't have fit. I know most of the time stories with new people don't work.. So just bear with me if you don't like her.. I'd like to thank Marissa03, your review really um.. *searches for word* encouraged me.. I was really worried the new girl thing wouldn't work at all.